Animal Enrichment

An animal’s mental well-being is just as important as suitable housing, top-notch veterinary care, and the best food available.

Aquarium staff meet this need by devising specialized items and experiences, called enrichment, that encourage natural behaviors and mimic challenges the animals might face in the wild.

All Aquarium animals benefit from enrichment!

Guests often see our mammals playing with various toys or items. In the wild, sea otters forage for shellfish such as clams and mussels, using rocks or hard surfaces to break open the shells. Here at the Aquarium, the otters are given enrichment items that encourage their tool-use behavior. Hiding shrimp, fish, and other food inside feeder balls challenges the otters, giving them an opportunity to exercise their brains and tool-use skills.

Enrichment takes place in many forms, ranging from introducing new scents and items to providing novel experiences, such as painting sessions!

Mammals don’t get to have all the fun!

Visitors may see sturgeon working to extract yummy treats from feeder balls, or puffins in our seabird aviary taking a ping pong ball bath.

Our turkey vulture Olive can even be seen tearing into pumpkins or working through a paper puzzle for a tasty prize.

We also have an annual Enrichment Day celebration, during which we explore enrichment methods, such as hand-crafted puzzle boxes for our octopus.

Enrichment ensures animals are physically and mentally stimulated. OCAq staff are constantly developing new methods to challenge and engage the animals they care for; providing choice is also a crucial part of enrichment—the animals are never forced to participate in or engage with enrichment, and sessions are always voluntary. The animals are presented with a variety of options, ensuring each individual has their needs met.

OCAq’s pinnipeds express their artistic side during these sessions by holding a modified paintbrush in their mouth and choosing where to apply a paint stroke on a canvas. Not only does this engage them cognitively, but it fosters behavior that directly applies to medical care as well—Learning to hold a modified brush directly translates into holding a dental plate for x-rays, allowing the animal to participate in its own care.

How Can I Help?

The Aquarium’s animal enrichment program is supported, in part, by donations.

Enrichment Wishlist Donations

The Aquarium’s enrichment wishlist provides a list of much needed or greatly desired enrichment items. Selected by our husbandry staff, all items are listed with a description of the specific animal it will go towards.

From puzzle treats to rafts for lounging, your donation helps make a direct difference in our animals day. Keep an eye out during your next visit, on our live cameras, or via our social media to see your favorite furry, finned, or feathered animal enjoying the item!

Monetary Donation

Want to make a monetary donation towards every day enrichment items, or help contribute to one of our larger big ticket items? By making a direct monetary donation, your support helps our husbandry
staff allocate funds to much needed items or the replacement of
well-loved items our animals already enjoy.

Big ticket items are more costly than standard wishlist items, typically designed with aquarium species in mind. Things like large platforms for our otters to float in or play on, realistic looking kelp for fish to frolic in, or complex mirror puzzles for our seabirds to be dazzled by are some recent examples.